Priest and Victim

Priest and Victim

(No. 2693)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1900.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 28, 1881.

"He offered up Himself." Hebrews 7:27.

I DO not know when I have ever felt a more decided conflict of emotions
in my own heart than I do just now. Happy is the man who has such a
message as that in my text to deliver to his fellow men–but burdened
is the man who feels that the message is far too great for his lips,
or, indeed, for any human tongue to convey. To be allowed to announce
to men that our Lord Jesus Christ "offered up Himself on their behalf
is, indeed, an errand which angels might envy, but the theme is too
great for any human being to compass. I comfort myself with the
reflection that it does not require any excellence of speech to tell
it–the excellence lies in the Truth itself. And if men's minds are in
a right condition–if they are conscious of their lost state and they
really desire to know what Christ has done to save them from it–they
will need no garnishing or tawdry fripperies of human eloquence. All
they will need will be to hear, as plainly and as earnestly as it can
be spoken, the message of reconciliation which God has sent through
Jesus Christ, His Son. Yet I cannot help feeling that the meaning of my
text is so weighty that it may break the backs of the words that
attempt to bring it to us. The axles of my human medium of conveyance
are ready to snap when freighted with such a load of Infinite Love and
Wisdom as comes to us in my short, full text–"He offered up Himself."

But, to begin, I would remind you, dear Friends, that the idea of a
sacrifice for sin is, in some sense or other, found in almost all human
religions. I believe that some of the most ignorant tribes of Africa,
and also Unitarians, have been found without the doctrine of an atoning
sacrifice in their religion, but I do not think there are any other
persons so benighted as these to be found anywhere. Go where you may,
you will discover that as soon as ever people begin to say, "God," the
next thing they say is, "sacrifice." And though their idea of God is
often distorted and their idea of sacrifice is also distorted, yet both
ideas are there. Man, however degraded, cannot altogether forget that
there is a God and then, shrinking back from the awful majesty of the
Divine holiness, he at least hopes that there is a sacrifice by which
his sins may be put away. He feels that there must be one if he is ever
to be brought into connection with God and so, in some form or other,
the notion of sacrifice crops up wherever there is any religion at all.
It may be in the ghastly form of human sacrifice, which is a hideous
misinterpretation which has crept in under the darkness and gloom of
heathenism or false teaching. Or it may appear in the continued
sacrifice of bulls, or lambs, or other victims, but, somehow or other,
the idea is there. Man seems to know, in his inmost nature, that he
must bring a sacrifice if he would appear before God, and this is, by
no means, an error on his part. However erroneous may be the frmit
takes, in its essence there is truth in it.

Brothers and Sisters, did you ever know this Truth of God in your own
souls? Has not the conviction come to you, under a sense of sin, as an
absolute certainty, that sin must be punished? I will not say that you
have thought so when you have imagined yourself to be all right, or, at
least, to be pretty nearly clear of anything wrong. No, but when
conscience has been awakened and has begun to speak in the quiet night
watches, in times of sickness, or when you have seemed to be on the
brink of eternity, I ask you, has there not come the thought that sin
would surely be visited with punishment?

That–

"Dread of something after death"

of which the world's poet speaks, is an indication of belief in the
Truth of God which is most sure, that the Judge of all the earth will
not suffer His Laws to be trampled on with impunity, but that He will
certainly punish iniquity, transgression and sin.

Then there has also come to your mind, I feel sure–at least I remember
well when it came to mine–the thought that God could not pardon me
without punishing my sin–or that, if He did, His moral government of
the whole universe would be weakened. If He permitted the guilty to
enjoy the same rewards as the righteous received, where would be His
justice? An amnesty to the guilty would, practically, be an abolition
of His Law–it would be tantamount to saying, "It does not matter how
you live, all will come right at last." There are some who teach that
doctrine, nowadays, and, to state it in plain English, this is the
doctrine that they teach–that we may rebel against God, we may
blaspheme God, we may despise God–we may cheat, we may lie, we may
murder, and so on–but it shall be just as well with us one day as it
will be with the best man that lives! Does not the least atom of common
morality that remains in man compel him to shrink back from teaching so
intolerable as that? It cannot be right! We need not argue about the
matter, it is impossible that it should be so, for human society would
go to pieces under such an arrangement as that and the Judge of all the
earth would have to abdicate His Throne before this could be! Many
years ago, I put into words for myself, when I was under a sense of
sin, a feeling which I believe others must have had under similar
circumstances. I said, "If God does not punish me for my sin, He ought
to do so." I felt that if He did not condemn me for my sin, my
conscience would condemn Him and that if He allowed me to go unpunished
when I was guilty, in some way or other He would cease to be a just God
and would no longer be worthy of the respect of my own conscience.

Now, that is a truth, a great truth, a terrible truth and hence it is
that the mind of the convinced sinner is driven to the hope of an
atonement. If God is to pardon sin, there must be something done by
which His Law can be honored, His justice can be vindicated and His
truthfulness can be established. In fact, there must be an atonement!
That is what it all comes to, or else pardon is impossible and you and
I would be lost forever. I would to God that we all not only believed
this Truth–as I suspect that the most of us do–but that we felt it to
be the case in our own personal experience, that we realized our need
of an atoning Sacrifice in order that God might be just, and yet be the
Justifier of the ungodly–that the honor of His Law might shine out in
unsullied purity like the terrible crystal and yet that "a rainbow
round about the Throne, in sight like unto an emerald," might be seen
by the sons of men, reminding them of the Covenant made between the
Father and the Son concerning all who believe in Jesus Christ our Lord
and Savior!

This brings me to the blessed announcement of the text, that the
Atonement which men have blindly sought after has been made! That the
Sacrifice which the conscience longs for has been presented! Here is
the best possible news in four words–"He offered up Himself." Spirit
of God, help us to think about this sublime Truth and to speak of it
aright!

I. Here is, first, THE PRIEST–"HE offered up Himself." Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, came into the world and "offered up Himself as a
Sacrifice for sin. The Great High Priest, who officiated on the
occasion of that wondrous and unique Sacrifice, was Jesus Christ
Himself.

"He," who was of infinite dignity–He who, in His first estate as very
God of very God, was worshipped and obeyed by all the angels of
Heaven–He who was with the Father when He spanned the heavens and laid
the foundations of the universe–He it was, this Son of God, who
"offered up Himself." No inferior priest was there. There were wicked
men who were the instruments employed in accomplishing His death, but,
after all, the great hand that presented the Lamb of God as the one
Sacrifice for sin was the hand of the Christ of God–"He offered up
Himself." Our High Priest is of such dignity that none can be compared
with Him. He is the Son of the Highest, the equal of the Father. I want
you to think of this Truth of God because it may help you to see how
great must have been the merit of the Sacrifice when it was God
Himselfwho "offered up Himself." He was no mere delegated or elected
priest, but Christ Jesus, Himself, in whom "dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily"–Christ, who is the brightness of His Father's
Glory and the express image of His Person, He it was who stood at the
altar presenting "Himself to God as the one and only Sacrifice for sin!
O sinful men, come here, for here is a Sacrifice which may well satisfy
the demands of the Divine Law, since Christ Himself puts on the
priestly garments and offers it to God!

"He offered up Himself," that is to say, He voluntarily agreed to be
the Victim for this wondrous Sacrifice. Did you not notice this Truth
in the chapter we read just now? "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book
it is written of Me), to do

Your will, O God." Christ was not compelled to come to earth except by
the sweet compulsion of His own love. And with that as His
master-motive–

"Down from the shinning seats above With joyful haste He fled."

Voluntarily He took upon Himself our nature and was born at Bethlehem,
and voluntarily did He tarry here for 33 years. He might have gone back
when "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not," but He had
come in order that He might be a Sacrifice for sin, so He remained
until the hour appointed for His death. And, even then, He was not
forced to die–"He offered up Himself." Pilate's servants and Herod's
soldiers could not have slain Him unless He had been willing to die. He
had but to breathe the wish and the legions of Heaven would have burned
up the legions of Herod as chaff is consumed in the furnace! Neither
the Romans nor the Jews could have nailed Him to the tree, nor could
all their priests, nor all the ribald mob have put Him to death without
His own consent. When He did but speak to them in the Garden of
Gethsemane, they went backward and fell to the ground! He that made the
earth to quake and open when He died could have shaken them off the
earth, or buried them in it while He lived, if He had so pleased. But
He voluntarily delivered Himself up to death.

To the very last there was no compulsion upon Him to die, except that
compulsion of love of which I have spoken. You and I must die. The
infirmities of nature will compel us to give up the ghost, but He was
strong and vigorous even at the moment of His death. That glorious
shout, "Consummatum est–"It is finished!"–came from One who was still
in the vigor of His strength and just entering on His eternal victory!
When He bowed His head, it was because He would do it and willingly
yielded up His soul, committing His spirit to the Father–not under
constraint, but, "He offered up Himself." Oh, this makes the Sacrifice
of Christ so blessed and glorious! They dragged the bullocks and they
drove the sheep to the altar. They bound the calves with cords, even
with cords to the altar's horn, but it was not so with the Christ of
God! None compelled Him to die–He laid down His life voluntarily, for
He had power to lay it down and to take it up again. "For the joy that
was set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising the shame." "He
offered up Himself."

From this great Truth of God, we may learn two or three practical
lessons. The first is the blasphemy of supposing that any so-called
"priest" can offer up Christ. There are men who say that in the
"unbloody sacrifice of the mass, there is offered to God a true, proper
and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead." Stand back,
Beloved! Withdraw from the sons of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, lest the
earth should again open and swallow them up, and they should perish
alive in their iniquity! "He offered up Himself," and yet these fools
say that they offer Him again! God have mercy upon them, and open their
blind eyes that they may no longer thus perpetrate an infamous
blasphemy against His holy name!

But there is also a lesson for us to learn and that is the folly of our
attempting to offer any sacrifice whatever to God in and of ourselves,
for, Brothers and Sisters, there never was such a Sacrifice as Christ
on earth. It was the best Sacrifice that could ever be, yet nobody
offered that but Christ Himself. What are your sacrifices and mine?
They are very poor things–so shall we dare to offer them to God? No,
let us ask Christ to offer all our sacrifices for us. If the best
Sacrifice needed Christ to present it to His Father, then our imperfect
sacrifices can only be offered by Jesus Christ our Great High Priest.
And though we, who trust Him, and love His name, are all priests, for
He "has made us kings and priests unto God," yet we are only priests in
Him, and our sacrifices are only presented in and through Him. It must
be so, for, if the chief Sacrifice is offered by Him, all the minor
ones must also be presented by Him if they are to be accepted by God.

And, dear Brethren, here is another lesson, namely, the security of
those who trust in the Sacrifice of Christ, for if I accept the
Sacrifice of Christ for me and trust in it, if I am not saved by
it–suppose that to be possible–then it follows that the Great High
Priest, when "He offered up Himself," did not perform an effectual
work. That would be a terrible imputation upon His honor. God forbid
that we should entertain it for a single moment! Much, it is said, in
the offering of the "mass" in the Roman Catholic Church, depends upon
the intention of the priest. I should think so, but we know what the
intention of our High Priest was! We dare not rely upon the intention
of any human priest, but we know that our Lord Jesus Christ "offered up
Himself–not in fiction or hypocrisy, but in reality and with His whole
heart and soul–and we are certain that He offered an acceptable and an
effectual Sacrifice to God, and that we who trust in it must be saved.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the effect of that dread
Sacrifice must stand, for He who offered it is the Son of God! Fall
back, my Soul, on this firm Rock and rest there securely whatever
doubts may come to assail you!

II. Now, in the second place, I shall ask you carefully to look at THE
SACRIFICE. "He offered up Himself." That is to say, Jesus Christ did
not offer lamb or ram, bird or bullock, but "Himself."

That is a great word and it means that His whole Nature as Man was
offered up in death as an Atonement for us– His whole Nature as Man,
perfect and sinless, and indissolubly united with His Divine Nature. I
do not say that God died, nor would I put it quite so, but I will say
that He who died was God, though Man, and that "He offered up
Himself–the whole of Himself–in Sacrifice to God on our behalf. His
precious body suffered pains which are indescribable, but which I pray
you never to undervalue or forget. I have seen criticisms concerning
what is called "the sensuous-ness" of certain of our hymns that speak
of His wounds, and so on. Never mind the criticism–be willing to be
called sensuous–Holy Scripture might be condemned on the same ground.
You will never understand the agony of Christ's soul if you despise the
agony of His body, for, while the sufferings of His soul were the soul
of His sufferings, yet the sufferings of His body were the body of His
sufferings and he who does not think much of the body of the sufferings
is not likely to know much about the soul of them.

His body was given for you and for me and, then, His spiritual
Nature–His mind, His intellect, His heart, His imagination–every pure
unspotted faculty of that blessed Soul of His–He gave up all for us!
The alabaster box, His body, was broken, and the precious nard, His
Soul, was poured out like a Divine perfume upon the head of our poor
humanity. It was all given for us! "He offered up Himself." Not His
garments only, though He was stripped naked–not His Glory only, though
He emptied Himself–not His life only, though He laid down His life for
us–but "He offered up Himself." Oh, it is a great word, but it
describes a great Sacrifice and it needed all that to make an Atonement
for our sins–and all that He gave.

"He offered up Himself," that is, He presented Himself to God as a
Sacrifice and He did actually die. O Brothers and Sisters, I cannot
describe that wondrous death! You and I have never died. We have been
sick, but to actual death we have never yet come. Some of us never
shall know death as Christ knew it, for, remember, death was death to
Him, but for His saints the bitterness of death is past. Christ had to
endure death in all its bitterness, but He has taken away the wormwood
and the gall of death for us who believe in Him. Many of those who were
martyred for His name's sake, when they burned at the stake could sing
as they died! They counted the flames as though they were but beds of
roses, for He was with them, and God was with them to sustain them.
But, for Him, there was no such succor, no Divine support. "Eloi, Eloi,
lama Sabachthani?" was the cry into which more grief was packed away
than can even be found in any sufferer in Hell! For, remember, the
griefs of Christ were not the griefs sufficing for one lost man, but
for unnumberedmyr-iadswho would otherwise have been banished from the
Presence of God forever. "He offered up Himself." Oh, see Him die, if
you can bear the sight! His blessed soul exhaled, His body left behind
to be buried in the tomb. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the Cross."

I always think, with regard to that offering up of Himself, that it was
a very mysterious transaction into which you and I must not pry with
any sinful curiosity. Yet, as I meditated upon this subject, it
appeared to me that the Cross, which seemed so small a thing out yonder
on that little rising ground of Golgotha–that one Cross, standing in
the center of the three, appeared to me to be the center of the entire
universe, and so it is. If the inhabitants in all the stars did not see
Christ die. If from all worlds they could not behold the dreadful
sight, yet they must have heard of it in many a star by this time.
Swift spirits have told, in those bright orbs where myriads of unfallen
creatures dwell, the story that on this little dusky planet, sin
struggled against Incarnate Love, and Love, to conquer it, died and, in
the dying, won the victory. I cannot tell you how many races of
intelligent beings there are beside the hierarchy of angels, but it is
not at all improbable that there are as many worlds as there are grains
of sand upon the seashore–and perhaps every one of these teems with
inhabitants more than our earth does–and they have heard and they keep
on hearing, and the news keeps spreading everywhere that the God who
made them all took human form and died to put away human sin!

And, supposing this is the case, what do you think all these
intelligent beings say? It must be that the impression made upon them
is that sin is a horrible thing since it stabs at God Himself! All
intelligences must also feel that God is just, since He will sooner,
Himself, die than let sin go unpunished. It further rings throughout
the spheres that God is Love–that He will sooner bleed to death than
let His creatures perish! And that here He once proved, in His death,
that He was Infinite both in His vengeance and His mercy! All the
universe throughout eternity shall hear this wondrous story! It is so
marvelous that it will never grow stale. They are telling it, tonight,
to wondering assemblies, compared

with which this vast congregation is but a drop in a bucket. Standing
in some central star, some mighty intelligence is proclaiming this
story, perhaps to as many worlds as there are men and women in this
building. Certainly, it is worthy of such an audience, for never was
there such news as that the Infinite, Immortal, Eternal, Invisible,
Almighty loving God did come and take upon Himself the sin of men–and
at last suffered and died in the place of guilty sinners!

You say, perhaps, that I am dreaming while talking to you thus. But
dear Friends, we sometimes learn more truth in dreams than when we are
awake! At any rate, this I know, I would sooner be mistaken in
enlarging too much upon the wondrous fact and efficacy of the Cross
than I would ever become one of those who shrivel up the Atonement till
there is little or nothing of it left. I believe that there was such a
necessity for Christ to die as you and I have never yet imag-ined–that
He did not die merely because His death was necessary upon this planet,
but that it was necessary through every province of the infinite
dominions of God–and that it was necessary to the very Nature of God,
Himself, which is saying still more. There was a supreme necessity that
Christ should die. I am sure of it, for otherwise He would not have
died. The Father would never have given up His Son to the death of the
Cross unless it had been imperative that this Sacrifice should be
offered, or else that men should suffer forever. Oh, wonder of wonders!
Tell it everywhere and never cease to tell it! "He offered up Himself."

III. Now, lest I should weary you, I will, in closing, only say a
little upon the third point, which is, CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES
SURROUNDING THIS TRUTH WHICH ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO US.

The first is this. "He offered up Himself," but He did not offer up
Himself for Himself. That is an offering which cannot be imagined. So
far as Christ was Himself, alone, concerned, there was no necessity
that He should die. He was infinitely glorious and blessed. "He offered
up Himself," but not for Himself. Then, for whom did He die? For men.
We are told that He took not up angels, but He took up the seed of
Abraham. He took up sinful men. O poor Sinner, I want you to think of
this! Let your soul see Jesus on the Cross–bleeding, writhing,
suffering, tortured, dying, dead. And then remember that there was not
one pang, or groan, or sigh for Himself–it was all for others–for His
enemies. I wish we could all say, one by one, "It was for me. He loved
me and gave Himself for me. He endured the Cross for me. His blood was
shed for me. Those agonies and cries and griefs were all for me. For me
the death-pang and the expiring groan–all for me, for me." If you
believe in Jesus, it is so. There must have been something great done
for you there. Your great sin must have been buried there. The great
Hell which you ought to have endured must have been extinguished there.
So far as you are concerned, the great Heaven which you could never
have entered must have been opened there, if He died there for you!
Untold blessings are insured to you in that matchless death. Dwell on
that thought, Beloved. "He offered up Himself," but not for Himself. It
must have been, then, for the guilty! O my Soul, it must have been–it
was–for you if you believe in Him!

Next, notice that this great deed of love was really done. "He offered
up Himself." He did really do it! I know that when I am preaching, some
of you seem to think that I am only talking about fanciful or imaginary
matters. If I were to begin to speak of President Garfield and his
sickness, or about the wet weather and the harvest, you would say,
"These are facts." O Sirs, but this also is a fact, and the greatest of
all facts–"He offered up Himself." It happened long ago, but it is
true that He did this! That same God that painted every flower–that
spread the skies–the God that made us– came here in human form and,
after living here a life of blessing and beneficence, He died as a
Sacrifice for human guilt! This is not something that is yet to be
done. It is all over! Jesus Himself said, "It is finished." If I had to
tell you that God would come here and become Man and die for us, you
might say, "It may not be–it is too great a condescension. Do you know
how great God is and can it be imagined that He should come down to
earth, be veiled in human flesh and in that flesh should suffer and
die? It cannot be!" But I have to tell you that it hasbeen done–it is
an accomplished fact! He did it–"He offered up Himself." It may
sometimes have been a question among Believers who lived before Christ
died– "Will He really die?" But it is no question to you and me, for
He hasdied–His great deed of love is done!

And He so completely did this that it will never be done again. If you
will not accept this Christ, there will never be another, and if you
will not be saved by His redemption, you will never be redeemed at all!
And there is this comfort about it–that He only died once because
there is no need that He should ever die again! His one death has slain
death for all who trust Him. His one bearing of sin has put their sin
away forever. God can now justly forgive the believing sinner and He
may well blot out the debt when it has been paid by His Son. Well may
He remit the sentence against us, now that His Son has stood in our
place and borne the penalty due to our sin. God is therefore just when
He justifies those for

whom Christ died. Where would His justice be if He did not? Did Christ
pay my debts and am I arrested for them? Did He die for me and shall I
perish? Where, then, is the Atonement? Beloved, if you believe in
Jesus, be glad that He died once and be still more glad that He cannot
die again, and that there is no need that He should! The Atonement is
completed. You are saved and you shall never come into condemnation.
How I wish that I could preach on such a theme as this as it deserves!
But I do not know how it is to be done. It does not seem to me as if
any human words could ever fittingly set forth such a wondrous mystery.
No, though they were written across the face of the sky–unless God
Himself wrote them with a finger of lightning–I know of no way in
which this Truth of God could be fitly set out–"He offered up
Himself."

But, my dear Hearers, I wish you would all lay hold of this blessed
Truth! When I laid hold of it, it was the crisis in my whole
history–and to this hour it is the joy of my soul! I could not give up
this blessed belief–that "He offered up Himself" in the place of all
His people, of all who believe in Him and that, therefore, they are
safe forever!

I must sum up, in a few words, much more that I might have said. And,
first, this Truth quiets the conscience. "He offered up Himself."
Conscience never murmurs after the blood of Jesus has been applied to
it. I say to myself, "Jesus died for me. Jesus suffered in my place.
Jesus took my guilt. Jesus bore my punishment." And my conscience says,
"That is enough. That is all I need!"

This Truth of God also satisfies my understanding. Let those who will,
sneer at the simple Gospel and the Doctrine of Substitution, but I have
no understanding that is too large to be satisfied with these things.
It seems to me that if God appointed Christ to be an Atonement for sin,
and if He is satisfied with His Sacrifice, I may well be content.
Surely, if my great Creditor and Judge is appeased by what His Son has
offered on my behalf, it is not for me to begin to quibble at it! I
know how some criticize the great central Truth of the Atonement. I
care not how they criticize it so long as God has accepted it! And
since He has also accepted me in Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior, my
soul feels perfectly content and understands why she is contented.

And, oh, how this Truth also wins the affections of men! Can you help
loving the Christ who offered up Himself for you? And loving Him, do
you not desire to honor and glorify Him? Do you not feel that you hate
the sin that made Him die? Do you not wish to be like He and in
everything give Him pleasure by a life of holiness, self-denial and
self-sacrifice? I know you do! It must be so. Because Jesus sacrificed
Himself for you, you feel that you must love Him with all your heart.

Does not this Truth of God also awaken your admiration? Say, Brothers
and Sisters, is there anything that can move you like this glorious
Truth of which I have been speaking? Does it not awaken your highest
admiration when you remember that the Lord Jesus Christ took your sin
upon Himself and suffered in your place? I know that there is no hand
that can sweep the strings of my heart with such power as can the hand
that was pierced for me! This theme enkindles my enthusiasm and stirs
my passions to a flame–and makes me wish for the tongues of men and of
angels that I might be able to tell out this story of "love so amazing,
so Divine." I would ask no other Heaven, if I might have my choice,
than having to meditate upon the passion of my Lord and to tell it out
to others–and then to fall at His dear feet and worship Him, world
without end, for He was slain and has redeemed me by His precious
blood! You take Christ out of the Gospel and out of your preaching, and
see whether you will awaken any enthusiasm among your people!

There is a cold, steely religion, sharp and deadly, out of which the
Atonement has gone. But was it ever a power in this land, or any other,
or will it ever be? Only preach the Christless Gospel and you shall
have spiders in abundance in your places of worship–but very few men
and women! They run away, if they are wise, from the place where Christ
is not preached and His atoning blood is not constantly set forth!
Point that place out to me on the map of London and I will show you the
spot where there is a beggarly array of empty benches, and few hearers,
for they flee, and rightly so, as hungry men flee from the place where
there is no bread! And as the thirsty in the wilderness turn away from
the dried-up well, they get still more thirsty as long as they stay by
the empty mockery, so they hasten away from it.

But preach Jesus Christ and Him Crucified–preach the atoning
Sacrifice–and see how the people flock together! Let them believe this
Truth, let them love it, and their whole spirit is stirred within them
and everyone becomes a soldier of the Cross, a warrior for Jesus
Christ! I am sure it is so and what I feel within my own spirit I know
that you all feel, too, for, "as in water, face answers to face, so the
heart of man to man."

And, finally, this Truth of God that Christ offered up Himself, leads
us who accept it to be ready for self-sacrifice. It makes the believing
man say, "As He offered Himself for me, I must give myself for Him." It
teaches the doctrine of the self-sacrifice of men for God and of men
for men. This is the nursery of brave spirits and the school in which
true heroes are trained. None have been bolder for the truth and for
the right, and for the advancement of the ages, and for the Glory of
God, than those who have enshrined the blood-red Cross within their
hearts, and who have been prepared, for love of it, even to die. O
Christ of God, You who have offered Yourself for us, we offer ourselves
to You! Accept us now! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 10:1-22.

Verse 1. For the law–The old ceremonial law of Moses–

1. Having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of
the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by
year continually make the comers thereunto perfect Those that were
sprinkled with the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices did not feel
that their sin was forever put away. They went back, after the victim
had been offered, with a certain measure of rest and relief, but not
with that perfect rest which is the accompaniment of the pardon that
Jesus gives to those who come unto God through Him.

2. For–If the worshippers had thus been made perfect. If they had been
completely cleansed and accepted through these sacrifices–

2. Then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. The
fact that there was a lamb to be offered every morning and every
evening, and that there was a great Day of Atonement to be observed
every year, proved that there was sin still remaining, which had not
been put away, and that the worshippers needed to come again, and
again, and yet again, with fresh sacrifices for their fresh sins. The
Apostle's argument is unanswerable.

3, 4. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins
every year For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins. Your common sense tells you "it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Although
rivers of such blood should continually be flowing, what efficacy could
there be in them to put away the moral stain of guilt and transgression
against God?

5. Therefore when He comes into the world–That great HE–that Divine
HE–our Savior and our God. "When He comes into the world."

5-7. He said, Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You
prepared for Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had
no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is
written of Me), to do Your will, O God. That will had not been done,
although myriads of sacrifices had been offered. But Christ came to do
that will by offering Himself as the one and only acceptable Sacrifice.

8, 9. Previously when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt
offerings and offering for sin You would not, neither had pleasure
therein; which are offered by the Law; then said He, Lo, I come to do
Your will O God. He takes away the first, that He may establish the
second. An end was made of the types and shadows of the Ceremonial Law,
that the real substance might be introduced by Christ. Never imagine,
dear Friends, that the old Jewish Ceremonial Law is to drag on its
existence, and to be intermingled with the Christian dispensation. Ah,
no! As the shadows of the night vanish when the sun arises. As the
lamps in yonder street are put out when daylight returns, so was it
with all the types and shadows of the ancient Law when the great
Antitype appeared!

10. By that will. That is, the will of God as done by Christ–"By that
will."

10-12. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once and for all And every priest stands daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins: but this Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Oh, what a blessed doctrine
this is–that the one Offering of Christ has done what the tens of
thousands of offerings under the old Law never could accomplish! All
the work of man is but the spinning of a righteousness which is undone
as quickly as it is spun, but Christ has finished the seamless and
spotless robe of His righteousness which is to last forever! By His one
Sacrifice He has ended all the fruitless

labor of the ages! And now, all of us who have believed in Him have all
the benefits of His perfect work! Having completed his great task, He
"sat down at the right hand of God."

13. From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool
"Expecting. " That was the subject of this

morning's sermon. [Sermon #1616, Volume 27–Saved in Hope] We

are expecting something better than we have yet seen. "We were saved in
hope." We are expecting that which is yet to be revealed and our
Covenant Head is expecting, too! This is the age of expectancy. We have
not yet come to the fullness of the blessing that is ours in Christ
Jesus. The mercy of God is, at present, only in the bud–the
fully-developed flower has yet to be seen. Christ is expecting. His
saints are expecting. The whole creation is expecting!

14-17. For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us: for after
that He had said before, This is the Covenant that I will make with
them after those days, says the Lord, I will put My Laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more. Oh, what a blessed Covenant this
is! Christ's death has established a Covenant of Grace in which there
is no flaw and no possibility of failure, for the one condition of the
Covenant has been fulfilled by Christ! And now it stands as a Covenant
of "shalls" and "wills" on God's part from which He will never run
back. It is not, "If they do this, and if they do that, I will do the
other," but it is all, "I will." "I will put My laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more."

18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
No more offering for sin is needed, for the work of Atonement is fully
done, and done forever. As the sin of all who believe in Jesus is put
away, what need is there of any further sacrifice on account of it? The
Atonement is complete! Let us, therefore, rejoice in it and praise God
for it!

19-22. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and
having an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance offaith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.